


The sheer joy of a dream come true

by cruellae (tinkabelladk)



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: AU, F/F, Happy AU, Lunea?, M/M, but also some Luna/Aranea, mostly IgNoct
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-31
Updated: 2017-01-31
Packaged: 2018-09-21 04:26:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9531413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinkabelladk/pseuds/cruellae
Summary: AU: The events of the game never happened. Regis died a few years ago and Noctis is the king. A political marriage has been arranged with the Lady Lunafreya, but both are reluctant for their own reasons. Mostly IgNoct, but also a lady love for the beautiful Luna.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I apparently am so not done with this fandom. I always really liked Luna and wanted to write her a little more. And I fell in love with the idea of Noctis and Ignis. I also wanted to write a more grown up Noctis, so this is set when he's about 26, and has become king.

Luna was radiant in her wedding dress, her long hair teased into some kind of complicated upsweep and crowned with a diamond tiara. A diamond pendant hung around her neck, and more gems sparkled on her earlobes. Gifts, from the King of Lucis to his new bride.

Aranea bit back a growl at the thought of the groom. He’d been wearing the traditional Lucian black, with a blue flower in his lapel and a silver crown on his head. Handsome, if you liked that sort of thing, and smug, like he knew it. King or not, Aranea immediately disliked him.

“Unzip me, please,” Luna said.

“What, so you can slip into something more comfortable for the king?” Aranea snapped.

“We did just get married,” Luna replied, with the same calm composure she’d had since she first told Aranea about the wedding.

Aranea jerked the zipper down more forcefully than necessary, tearing the back of the dress, but what did it matter? The wedding was over, now, and all that was left was for Noctis to put his filthy fucking hands all over Luna.

Luna stepped out of the garment, leaving it on the floor in a puddle of white satin. Her slip shimmered over her pale skin, almost translucent, and loose tendrils of hair fell to her neck. Aranea thought the Oracle had never looked so holy, or so beautiful.

She was not a religious woman, but Luna made her believe.

She got down on her knees and put her hands on Luna’s waist, hot silk beneath her palms and the curves of the body it barely covered.

“Run away with me,” she said. “I can get you out of the palace tonight. We’ll find some backwater town where no one knows who you are and we’ll just…be.”

“Aranea,” Luna said, gently, placing her hands on either side of the bodyguard’s face as though to give a blessing. “In my heart, you will always come first. But my duty is to Noctis, and to the gods.”

Behind her, Aranea could hear a man clearing his throat. She got up quickly and turned to face the King of Lucis, standing between him and the Oracle.

“Noctis,” Luna said, startled. “I can explain.”

“You don’t have to explain,” Noctis said. “I think I got the gist.”

“And?” Aranea said, a hand on the dagger at her hip. If Noctis wanted to punish Luna for loving someone else, he could fucking try.

“And I’m glad,” Noctis said, running a hand through his hair. He looked weary, but clear eyed. “I’m glad someone will love you, Luna, in all the ways I can’t.”

Luna put her hand on Aranea’s shoulder, and all the bodyguard’s tension bled out beneath that warm, gentle touch. Aranea stepped aside, so that Luna could speak to the king properly.

“I do love you, Noctis,” Luna said. “Just—”

“Not in that way. I know. Me too.” He kissed Luna on the cheek. “There are strawberries and champagne in the drawing room. Don’t let them go to waste. I’ll be back in the morning.”

“Noctis,” Luna called after him as he walked away. “Thank you.”

He nodded at her, and walked out. When the door shut behind him, Aranea picked Luna up, listening to the Oracle giggle like a schoolgirl as she twirled them around, and set her gently on the king’s big, satin sheeted bed.

#

Ignis was drunk. Heavily intoxicated. Sloshed. Wasted. Whatever you wanted to call it, it made the world warm and soft at the usually sharp edges. That was nice.

And the man kissing him, that was nice too. Ignis didn’t usually pick up strangers, particularly not at state-sponsored events like a royal wedding, but tonight was an exception. An exception to the never-get-drunk rule, an exception to the keep-your-phone-on-you-at-all-times rule, an exception to the behave-in-a-manner-befitting-a-king’s-right-hand rule.

If there was ever an occasion for such exceptions, it was Noctis’s wedding. It was watching the king look happily anxious beside the beautiful blushing Lady Lunafreya and thinking—no matter how hard he tried not to—that she was here to take his place.

“Ah,” Ignis hissed when the man’s lips pressed to a particularly sensitive spot on his neck, “This one’s mine.”

The man—Deci, was it?—gave him a sleepy grin. He had thick black hair, slightly disheveled, and a slender build. “Gonna let me in?”

“Yes.” Ignis fumbled with his keys, and opened the door.

“Hey.” Noctis waved at him from the sofa, where he was watching TV, slouched across the cushions in a very non-regal manner. “Ignis. You forgot your phone.”

Deci walked over to the couch, in a not entirely straight line. He had been drinking too. “King Noctis. Congrats, man. Luna’s a beautiful lady.”

Ignis finally remembered who exactly the lithe twenty year old leaning on the back of the couch was; a connection he would have made immediately were he not so intoxicated. Deci was the King’s cousin on his father’s side. They’d known each other as boys, and now, as they both turned to glance at Ignis, the familial resemblance was clear.

Noctis’s eyes landed on Ignis, and he could feel heat flush his neck as Noctis took in his disheveled hair and the disarray of his tie and shirt. The smile left Noctis’s face and he waved Ignis’s phone at him. The one Ignis had deliberately left behind because tonight, he promised himself, he wouldn’t care. Tonight, he wouldn’t give a fuck about the damned king of Lucis. And then, of course, he’d gone and seduced someone who looked just like him.

There really was no outrunning your daemons, was there?

“Shouldn’t you be busy tonight?” Deci asked the king.

“This stays between you and me, cousin,” Noctis said, leaning on the couch and looking very serious. “She’s old-fashioned. Wants to take it slow. I’m trying to be a gentleman.”

“Good man,” Deci said.

Noctis got up off the couch, stalking towards Ignis with a lazy grace and royal bearing that reminded the advisor the king really had no equal. “I didn’t realize you’d be busy. I’ll go crash with Prompto.”

His words were kind, almost playful, but he didn’t smile. He stepped close to Ignis and the advisor stopped breathing for a moment, frozen as those blue eyes locked onto his.

“Don’t do anything ‘indecorous,” Noctis said, and he looked furious, though he kept his tone light for Deci’s benefit.

Indecorous. He thought Noctis had forgotten. That sweltering summer, the kiss in the palace gardens, the distance he’d put between them that night. It would be indecorous, he told the seventeen year old prince, stammering, before he’d made his clumsy retreat.

#

Noctis shut Ignis’s door behind him. It was all he could do not to slam it. Why was it that his wife’s infidelity hardly troubled him, but the thought of Ignis with his hair mussed and his shirt half unbuttoned was enough to make the king burn with jealousy?

He was half-way down the hall when he heard the door open and shut again.

“Your Highness,” Ignis said.

He turned, facing his advisor. “What?”

“Does the Crownsguard know where you are?”

“They know I’m with Luna. And that’s all they need to know.”

“And why aren’t you with Luna?” Ignis asked.

“What do you care?”

Ignis stepped back as though affronted. “I care about you.”

Noctis crossed the distance between them with two large strides. “I’m keeping up appearances. And that’s all you really care about anyway.”

Deep down, he knew that wasn’t true. He didn’t really mean it, he just wanted to do something, anything that would shatter that infuriating composure until Ignis was as furious and hurt as Noctis was himself.

“Why are you so angry?” Ignis asked.

“You left your phone behind,” Noctis said, “so you could go seduce some idiot…at my wedding…” He trailed off, as he realized he was being completely irrational. Ignis was a grown man, approaching thirty years old, and this almost certainly wasn’t the first lover he’d ever had.

Thinking that did not help Noctis stay calm.

Ignis gave him a puzzled glance. “Forgive me, Highness. I didn’t think you’d want to spend your wedding night with me. I’ll call a car to take Deci home.”

And this was what Ignis did, every time. He took responsibility for things that were really Noctis’s fault, without flinching or complaining. Noctis had been an adult for some time, but Ignis, with his flawless, graceful composure, periodically made him realize just how immature he was. How childish, how demanding.

“Don’t,” Noctis said. “I’ll stay with Prompto.”

But Ignis was already on the phone, summoning a vehicle, like he knew Noctis didn’t really mean it.

#

An hour or so later, Ignis was pulling brownies out of the oven while Noctis sprawled on the couch. The king was wearing Ignis’s clothes, and was devastatingly attractive in them, the cuffs of the pants and the sleeves rolled up because Ignis’s sweats were simply too long for his limbs.

With a familiar whomp and a flash of blue magic, Noctis materialized in the kitchen beside him. “Smells good. Can I have one?”

“Don’t warp around my apartment,” Ignis said, but he had to hold back a smile, handing over a gooey brownie.

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Would you like to watch a movie?” Ignis asked.

Noctis paused, then he licked the brownie crumbs from his fingers—an unintentional cruelty—and Ignis tried not to stare as his tongue darted from between his lips and brushed his pale fingertips.

“Aren’t you going to ask me what happened with Luna?” Noctis asked, leaning against the kitchen counters.

Ignis had to admit to some curiosity. “If you like.”

Noctis gave a short huff of laughter, running a hand through his hair. “I wasn’t sure if I could do it. Or if I really wanted to. I love her, Ignis, but it’s like how you love me. Devoted, but kind of distant, you know? So I was going to—”

“Distant?” Ignis said. “You think I’m distant?”

“Not in a bad way,” Noctis said. “You’re always there when I need you. But you always put a little space between us. Like this.” He stepped forward, and automatically, Ignis stepped back, so used to avoiding any kind of proximity with Noctis it had become second nature, a protective habit. He could often predict when the king would move before Noctis knew himself, and could anticipate it, just as he anticipated Noctis’s every whim.

“You’ve done it ever since we were teenagers,” Noctis said. “Ever since…”

Ah. Ever since Noctis had kissed him, and he had panicked, and pulled away, and fled. Indecorous indeed.

“You know I’d never betray your trust like that again,” Noctis said.

“Betray my trust?” That’s hardly how Ignis would have described the kiss that he had since relived in his head hundreds of times, thinking of all the different ways it could have played out. Even though he knew that his duty forbid him from climbing into Noctis’s bed in the middle of some long cold night, he let himself fantasize about it endlessly. Or rather, he couldn’t stop himself.

“Yeah,” Noctis said, grimly. “I didn’t know what I was doing when I…when I kissed you. It was only when I talked to my dad after that I realized what I’d done.”

Ignis’s eyes opened wide. “The King knew?” Never mind that King Regis had been dead for years, he still felt panic for a fleeting second.

“He saw how upset I was and wouldn’t leave me alone until I told him the whole story. He explained to me what it meant that I was in a position of power over you. I had never thought about it like that before, that I could make you do anything if I just pushed hard enough.” Noctis frowned, teeth worrying at his lower lip, and Ignis was so well trained that he didn’t stare at Noct’s mouth, as much as he wanted to.

“And that’s what happened, right?” Noctis said. “I pushed you too hard, into something you didn’t want. And now you keep a little distance, so it won’t happen again.”

For a moment, Ignis was rendered speechless. Did Noctis really carry so much guilt about what was undeniably one of the most pleasant moments of Ignis’s life?

“No,” he said. “Of course not. Your advances were…surprising, but not unwelcome. It’s just that I…”

It was unusually hot in the kitchen. Ignis checked to make sure the oven was off, even though he never left it on.

“It’s okay,” Noctis murmured. “You don’t have to say anything.”

He looked Noctis in the eye. He needed to say this, if only to ease the unfair burden of guilt Noctis has been carrying all these years.

“We were at your great-aunt’s birthday party,” he said. “I was afraid someone would see us. But more than that…”

How to explain it? Kissing Noctis had been overwhelming, like standing in the center of a thunderstorm, the charge to the air raising the hair on your arms, electricity shooting up and down your spine and the wet of Noct’s mouth like sweet rain.

“It was very…” Ignis hesitated, searching for the best euphemism and failing to come up with anything that seemed appropriate, “I wanted to fuck you right there in your great-aunt Delilah’s library. I had to get away from you before you made me lose all sense of propriety.”

“Oh,” Noctis murmured, shock written across his face.

“When I regained my composure, I realized what a bad idea it would be,” Ignis said.

Noctis stepped closer, and Ignis took an automatic step back. “Why is it a bad idea?”

“Because it wouldn’t have lasted. And when it fell apart, it would put undue strain on our professional relationship.”

Noctis took another step towards him, and Ignis found himself with his back to the cabinets, trapped. “That is the worst reason for not falling in love I’ve ever heard,” Noctis said.

The king was close enough to touch, now, and Ignis was afraid of this proximity and yet so desperate for it that he could barely speak. And when he did, the words came out breathy and reckless.

“Who says I didn’t fall in love?”

Noctis kissed him, and it took him over like a storm, just like before. But this time he let the kiss last and last, tongues together, Noct’s body hot against his, Noct’s fingers tangled in his hair.

When they pulled apart, he was breathing hard, his hands clutching the countertop behind him.

“Was that okay?” Noctis asked, and it was all he could do to nod and mumble some affirmative, unable to tear his eyes away from Noct’s lips, slightly parted and red from kissing, the slight flush to his cheeks and the wicked gleam in his eye.

“How about this?” Noctis said, and Ignis’s heart did a series of complicated flips and twists in his chest as the king of Lucis got down on his knees on the kitchen floor, his hair falling in his face as he smiled up at Ignis, his hands on Ignis’s belt buckle.

“Is this okay?” he said, a little more insistently.

“I…” He swallowed, hard. “It’s hardly proper for the King to—”

“For fuck’s sake, Ignis,” Noctis said, but he was laughing. “Do you want me to suck your dick or not?”

“Oh,” he murmured, flushed with heat and half-mad with desire. “Yes. Please.”

He couldn’t have known, that sultry summer when they first kissed, that sex with Noctis would be like this, so hot he felt as though he were melting from the inside out, and all he could do was tangle his fingers in Noct’s hair and hold on, his head thrown back against the cabinets, his body shaking under Noct’s patient attention.

After, Noctis, still on the floor, looked up at him with a wicked smile, clearly pleased with himself. He got up, and when they kissed, Ignis could taste himself on Noctis’s lips.

“It’s my turn,” he said, running his tongue over the curve of Noct’s ear, drinking in his soft gasp, and then turning his attention to the king’s pleasure.

#

“Can I have another brownie?” Noctis asked. He and Ignis were stretched out on the couch, tangled together. Ignis was draped over him, more relaxed than he’d felt in years.

“After that performance…” Ignis smiled lazily at him, “you can have anything you want.”

“So I made you happy,” Noctis said, carefully studying Ignis.

“You always make me happy,” Ignis said, and meant it. “But tonight even more so.”

Noctis gave him a kiss, then untangled himself from Ignis’s long limbs and disappeared in a flash of blue.

“Don’t warp in my apartment,” Ignis said, and heard answering laughter coming from the kitchen.

“I want you to move into the palace,” Noctis said, returning to the couch with a plate stacked high with brownies. “Take the quarters next to mine.” He was speaking in that casually imperious way he had, making it more of an order than a suggestion.

“I’d like to,” Ignis said, carefully. He would prefer to be close to Noctis at all times, and not just because it was annoying to have to drive over to the palace at two in the morning because the king was ill or had a nightmare or couldn’t sleep and was simply bored. “But don’t you think your wife will take issue with…this?”

Noctis laughed, and it sounded carefree in a way he hadn’t been since the wedding was announced. “You know, I’m pretty sure she’ll be fine with it.”

“What makes you so certain?”

“She’s in love with her bodyguard.”

“Oh,” Ignis murmured, his happiness now more subdued. Is that what this had been about? Noctis was rejected by his wife, so he’d sought out the one person who had always loved him? It was understandable, if somewhat disappointing. “I’m sorry, Noct. It can’t be easy for you.”

“Luna does this thing where it feels like she can see right through all your lies,” Noctis said. “It was fine when we were writing to each other, but I was sure once we were married she’d figure out that I was never going to fall in love with her. I thought I was going to break her heart. But it turns out she doesn’t even want that from me. It’s such a relief, Iggy.”

“You might have fallen in love with her,” Ignis said.

“Nah.” Noctis gave him a lazy grin. “I’d much rather have an indecorous affair with my advisor.”

Ignis laughed, with the sheer joy of a dream come true.

#

Luna slept peacefully by her side, while Aranea stared up at the ceiling, biting her lip hard and blinking back tears. She was the Queen’s sworn Shield, and before that, the leader of the most ruthless and feared mercenary band in Tenebrae. She had seen men die in horrible ways; she had killed without remorse. And yet here she was, in bed beside the most beautiful woman in Eos with tears running down the side of her face. What a fucking sap.

“What’s wrong, my love?” Luna asked, brushing the tears from Aranea’s cheek, and pressing a kiss there to replace them.

“You know what they used to call me, back when I was a mercenary?” Aranea asked. “They called you a lot of things,” Luna murmured, the slightest hint of unease creeping into her serene voice. Aranea know Luna was still coming to terms with her lover’s checkered past.

“Deathless. They called me Aranea the Deathless. Because I would take on any mission, no matter the odds, if it paid enough. They called it a suicide mission, when that creep from the Empire sent me to kill the Oracle, you know.”

“No,” Luna murmured. “I didn’t know that.”

“When Ravus captured me, I thought he was going to kill me,” Aranea said. “And I didn’t really care. I was just pissed that I had lost. And then…”

And then, as Ravus held the mercenary at swordpoint, Luna had appeared, and Aranea had thought she was a vision, an servant of the gods, come to take her to the beyond. Her beauty was like that, ethereal, like she never truly belonged to this world, but was just borrowed, for a too short time, before she returned to her rightful place with the gods.

“Why didn’t you kill me?” Luna asked. “You had many chances.” It was the one question she had never asked, though Aranea often wondered if it weighed on her mind. Luna had stopped Ravus from cutting Aranea’s throat, and instead offered Aranea the chance to serve her as a bodyguard.

“If you thought I was going to kill you, why did you spare me?” Aranea asked.

“I knew you wouldn’t kill me,” Luna said, with that calm certainty that was by turns awe-inspiring and infuriating. “But not why.”

Aranea pressed her hand to Luna’s chest, to feel the beating of her heart, then kissed one of her pink nipples.

“Partly because you saved my life,” Aranea said, raising her head to meet Luna’s eyes. “But mostly…” She took a deep breath, and felt tears start to prick at her eyes again. “Shit, baby, you know I’m not good with words.”

“I know,” Luna said, pressing her hand to Aranea’s cheek. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

“I used to be reckless,” Aranea said, “because I had nothing to lose. Now, I have everything to lose. And I thought I’d lose you tonight. I was…I have never been so scared in my life, Luna.”

Another woman might laugh, or tease Aranea, reminding her of the time she took down an imperial squadron by herself, or any number of her other daring exploits. But not Luna.

“You can never lose me,” the Oracle said. “I will always love you.”

Aranea buried her face in Luna’s neck, breathing the scent of those blue flowers that grew over the hills of Tenebrae, and laughed, with the sheer joy of a dream come true.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading <3
> 
> If you like what I write, you might like this free m/m romance book I wrote for fun: [Off Broadway](https://www.amazon.com/Off-Broadway-Sarah-Kay-Moll-ebook/dp/B07DP6DVHC/)


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